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Archival Irruptions

By Katharine Gerbner

Archival Irruptions

By Katharine Gerbner

0 - Default Title
Description
In 1760, following the largest slave revolt in the eighteenth-century British Empire, the Afro-Caribbean word Obeah first appeared in British colonial law. In Archival Irruptions, Katharine Gerbner traces how British authorities in Jamaica came to criminalize Obeah, a practice that was variously seen as a healing method, an Africana religion, a science, and a form of witchcraft. Gerbner shows that in the years directly preceding its criminalization, for enslaved Africans and Maroons, Obeah was a prophetic practice tied to healing and death rites. Drawing on Moravian missionary archives, Gerbner theorizes these descriptions of African religious beliefs, rituals, and concepts as "irruptions": moments when Africana epistemologies break the narrative of a European-authored archival document. In these irruptions, we see European assertions of authority through the lens of Obeah. Moreover, we find that the modern category of religion is rooted in the histories of slavery, rebellion, and the criminalization of Black religious practices. Gerbner's search for archival irruptions not only creates an opportunity to write an alternative narration about Obeah; it provides a new methodology for all those conducting archival research.
Product details
Number of Pages:
238
Release Date:
2025-10-14
Publication Date:
2025-10-14
Publisher:
Duke University Press
Languages:
Original: English
ISBN10:
147802903X
ISBN13:
9781478029038
GPSR Manufacturer Reference:
[email protected]
Weight:
543 g
Height:
157 cm
Width:
235 cm
Thickness:
19 cm
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